eden hall

Bringing Eden Hall on-line: the challenge of sustainability

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Kimberly Lucke’s op-ed in the Communiqué–“The Emperor has no clothes: Eden Hall campus’ promise of sustainability as nothing more than an elaborate illusion”– raises some interesting philosophical points, contains some factual errors, and arguments which need a little unpacking. So, in an effort to move towards solutions, let me dive in.

Is the Eden Hall Campus truly sustainable? No, nothing last for eternity. In the end, entropy always wins. But over a timeframe we are comfortable with and with a notion of sustainability that is not so fundamentalist, the Eden Hall infrastructure will be way more sustainable than most university campuses and communities. It is designed to have zero carbon emissions. At present it generates more energy than it uses and does so from renewable sources (geothermal and solar). We actively treat the majority of wastewater and storm water run-off on-site, thus greatly reducing our impact on the waterways of the region.   Our farm is using sustainable practices.  The new buildings are built to high LEED standards. So the infrastructure, energy, and water systems are highly sustainable.

Our challenge now is to build a living and working community on top of this that exemplifies the principles of sustainability. Sustainable communities balance public good (for now and the future) against private desire, and they embody principles of governance which both seek to represent the wishes of the individuals and the rights of the broader public, and generations yet to come.  In this spirit, I throw out a challenge to all of Chatham’s faculty and students. Let’s identify the problems (a thing academia is pretty good at), but also come up with workable solutions. A big chunk of sustainability is about community-generated adaptations to change. Figuring out how to make Eden Hall work as a learning community is the real challenge of the next year.

I also want to clarify that Eden Hall is a campus very much geared for both graduate and undergraduate student use today and in the future. At present, graduate students use it far more than undergrads. The systems that are in place – energy, water, the farm – generate opportunities and data that grad students (and soon undergrad students) embrace and use in their learning.

Eden Hall Campus will be pioneered, seeded if you like, by the Falk School. As the campus grows to the vision of 1,000 students one day, it will become like a branch campus offering a broad range of degrees, but all embodying the sustainable philosophy. Beginning this fall, graduate and undergraduate courses in business, psychology and education are going to be taught there for residents of the North Hills. The new, one-credit Eden Hall Experience classes for all Chatham undergraduates will also be offered. Biology classes and creative writing classes are already planned.

As the range of courses offered at Eden Hall grows, and as we get smarter at using the video-teaching facilities to connect students in one location with faculty in another, the challenge of travelling between the two campus will be reduced.  In the meantime, it is true that public transportation to Eden Hall is poor. That is why we are providing our own shuttle service, shared short-term car rental services and encouraging ride sharing in this inaugural year.

The first residence hall at Eden Hall is on track to open this August. It includes rooms for undergraduates and some more suitable for graduate students, with blocks of two bedrooms connected to their own private bathrooms. True, there are no fully fledged apartments, but that’s the point. We are not trying to emulate the unsustainable lifestyle of today, but rather experiment with a more sustainable lifestyle for the future.

Is Eden Hall isolated and remote? Is there nothing to do out there?  Well, what you see depends so much on where you stand. As someone who lives a mile north of campus, I’ve found there are good farm shops close by Eden Hall, locally-owned restaurants, tennis centers, a community center, shopping and more.

Yes, Eden Hall is not living in downtown Pittsburgh and the campus is not intended to provide urban opportunities. However, with three Chatham locations, spanning a gradient from urban to periurban, and with substantial community-based and urban engagement, we have the unique opportunity to create a 20 mi + learning landscape that can demonstrate how place and scale are key to sustainable initiatives. For example, land use policies, storm water management options, and development approaches vary in their appropriateness depending on location. What is appropriate for downtown Pittsburgh is not appropriate for EHC and vice versa. Our campuses enable us to highlight these place-based differences in a way that other universities cannot.

Whether we are able, over the next 20 years, to build a sustainable campus at Eden Hall depends, in large part, on the engagement of faculty and students.  You can be part of building the vision, for now and for future generations. I welcome the conversation and look forward to working with you all.

The Emperor has no clothes: Eden Hall campus’ promise of sustainability as nothing more than an elaborate illusion

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Let’s not beat around the bush. Chatham University’s new addition of the Eden Hall campus is not fooling anyone. You can add all the fancy water filtration systems and solar panels you like–this new campus is not sustainable, nor will it ever be, so let’s stop pretending that it is.

In Fall 2015, the Eden Hall campus will be open for undergraduate and graduate residents and will be the new location for the majority of the Food Studies and Sustainability classes. Claimed to be, “the embodiment of a commitment Chatham makes every day to support sustainability and environmental education,” the campus sits on 388-acres of donated land in Gibsonia, PA which is a little more than 20 miles north of Chatham’s Shadyside campus.

Upon applying to the Masters of Sustainability program, I, like my fellow classmates, couldn’t help but feel impressed by the plans for Eden Hall. We were dazzled by promises of aquaculture, green infrastructure, gardens, solar panels, and, more importantly, the promise of an environment that would foster skills to promote societal change, which arguably is the main reason that many of us are here in the Falk School of Sustainability. However, these illusions fizzled as soon as the realities of this development became apparent.

At a recent town hall meeting on February 11, a slideshow of dorm arrangements and smiling “hypothetical” students was presented by the Dean of the Falk School of Sustainability Peter Walker to a group of undergraduate and graduate students from the Sustainability and Food Studies programs, followed by a discussion about some nitty-gritty details about what life would look like on this campus.

Quickly, it became apparent that this whole operation is geared towards undergraduate students, who fit neatly into the plans for residential life. Graduate students, however, do not seem to fit so neatly, stating concerns about transportation, housing, scheduling of classes, and the isolation from the rest of the campus and the city.

Something that stood out strongly to me was that there seems to be very little for sustainability students to do on the this campus if their focus is on business, urban sustainability, or transportation issues, or if they are Food Studies students who are mainly interested in urban agriculture or urban food deserts. Regardless, all students will have to make the trek out to this campus for classes.

Apart from the apparent complete lack of considerations for the “real” students that are going to be living at Eden Hall, this new campus falls extremely short of its main promise of sustainability and is nothing more than glorified green-field sprawl that separates the sustainable community of Chatham from the rest of the university and from the city of Pittsburgh. Concerns about this isolation are centered on the general desire to reduce the siloing of knowledge, an issue that those in the field of sustainability identify as an impediment to societal change and a creator of false dichotomies between us. Physically separating the sustainable community from the larger Chatham community is reducing the opportunity for connections and intellectual growth for everyone.

Isolation is not the only impact this campus will have. The largest concern weighing on my mind is the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the green-field development (as opposed to in-fill) of the campus and the fact that this development is outside of Pittsburgh. This distance equates to a lack of viable public transit options for students, who will instead have to depend on personal cars, university shuttles, a car-sharing program similar to Zip Car, or, if you wish to be carbon neutral, there is the feeble promise of a smattering of bicycle lanes. Walking–either to class or to run errands–is also no longer a viable option for transportation. But even if it was, to go where? To do what? Which points to the fact that this campus is located in an area that is arguably less attractive to the growing trend of city-loving millennials like myself. Students will now have to either stay on campus or drive off campus for any non-school activities–including trips to the local pub, which raises additional concerns about safety.

At the end of the town hall meeting, all of these voiced concerns were shrugged off by the Dean as mere fears of change. This is dismissive and insults us, the students who are becoming experts in issues of sustainability. While it may be too late for the development plans to be altered or halted, I urge those in the Sustainability program and the Food Studies program, as well as members of the community, to acknowledge what this really is, which is not the formation of a progressive sustainable campus, but mere greenwashing.

You just can’t help asking, why was this development pushed and then slapped with the sticker of sustainability? Who was pushing it? Couldn’t this plot of land have been used in a better way? How do the students in the Falk School of Sustainability move forward, particularly with the goal of remaining a part of the community at Chatham in Shadyside and in the city of Pittsburgh? These are questions that have yet to be answered.

Improvised Shakespeare Company performs at Eden Hall

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William Shakespeare, considered by many as one of the greatest playwrights in history, is famous for his comedies and his tragedies; however, in his day, Shakespeare never combined the two genres quite like The Improvised Shakespeare Company did in their performance at Eden Hall’s Hilda M. Willis Amphitheater on Thursday, September 18.

The crowd included students, visiting for pleasure or extra credit; members of the general public; the Falk School of Sustainability’s Dean Peter Walker; and Chatham University President Esther Barazzone.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company, as their name suggests, improvises plays based entirely on a title suggested by an audience member.  Though they employ Elizabethan language and use themes present in many of Shakespeare’s works, the troop does not rehearse, pre-plan, or memorize any material.

“Everything you’re about to see tonight has been made up on the spot,” said actor Blaine Swen, as he introduced the concept.  “If ever you’re wondering where the story is going, so are we.”

An audience member chose the title A Horse Named Shirley, and the play began for, as Swen said, both its world premier and its closing night.

The action began in France, in the middle of war with England. Princes James (Randall Harr) and William (Ric Walker) of England weep for their brothers fallen in battle.  When their youngest brother, Ned (Josh Logan), appears–Ned was their smallest brother and, as the princes point out, he is even smaller now that his legs have been severed in battle–William swiftly kills him, leaving the two brothers alone once more.

Prince James, who is first in line for the throne now that their father has died, devises a plan to sneak into the French camp and overthrow the French King. He cuts off the mane of a horse named Shirley, fashions it into a wig, and disguises himself as a French woman to infiltrate the camp–in reminiscence of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in which Viola disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian.

In the next scene, the King of France (Ross Bryant) and his son (Logan) converse–in heavy French accents–at their camp. The Prince wishes to find true love, and his father sets him up with a homely French woman (Walker) with a comically husky voice. The Prince thanks his father for choosing for him a fiancée who he describes as “the most beautiful flower in the field,” but questions whether she was the only flower from which to choose.

Next the audience is introduced to Penelope (Swen), the Princess of France, who wishes for a love of her own, just as her father has found for her brother. She, like Juliet before her, finds solace in her nurse and confidante.

The next scene takes the audience back to the battlefield where five surviving soldiers (played by all five members of the cast: Bryant, Harr, Logan, Swen, and Walker) discuss their good fortune, which has allowed them to survive the war. One soldier, Boyd (Swen), admits to having penned a one-act play that is a metaphor for the political situation between France and England, instead of assisting his friends in the fight; as one friend remembers, Boyd drafted part of his play on the back of a soldier slain in battle. The men decide to stage Boyd’s play, and they go off into the woods to rehearse.

Back at the French court, Prince James in disguise meets the Prince of France, who instantly falls in love with him, disguised as a “her.” Admiring the incognito James’s “strong arms” and “sausage fingers,” the Prince of France wishes to marry the masculine lady. James, spotting a chance to infiltrate the kingdom and conquer France, pretends to reciprocate the French Prince’s love.

The next scene takes the audience to Prince William and a Spanish assassin he has hired to kill his brother James so he might inherit the English throne instead, just as King Claudius killed Hamlet’s father to inherit the throne of Denmark.

Finally the climactic scene begins. The King of France is troubled by his son’s attraction to an “openly manly” woman, and speaks to the memory of his deceased wife. A guard interrupts his soliloquizing without knocking, sending the King into a fit of rage beginning with the line, “Was knocking just invented?” and ending with the murder of the guard for not respecting his privacy.

The King is then visited by his daughter Penelope longing for a fiancé; the ghost of his deceased wife urging him to find love for his daughter; and his son with his bride-to-be, the disguised Prince James of England. When James sees Penelope, he falls instantly in love, sheds his disguise, and begs to marry Penelope and begin a peaceful union between England and France. Despite Penelope’s hesitation at first–“Well, this is happening really fast…”–she soon falls in love with James as well.

As Brutus, Macbeth, and Romeo before him, James makes a tragic error: he puts down his dagger as a sign of peacefulness towards France and is stabbed in the back by the Spanish assassin hired by his brother. William then enters and is transfixed by Penelope, but she stabs him for killing her love, before screaming, “This is the worst day of my life.”

Penelope and her brother the Prince fight over the now-deceased James, and she stabs him, too. As he dies, he professes his lasting love for James, despite his actual gender.

Finally, although her father tries to convince her otherwise, Penelope then stabs herself, leaving the King of France all alone.

At this point, the soldiers-turned-actors arrive to perform Boyd’s play. Having lost his family, the King is suicidal, but Boyd makes a deal with him: if they play is good, the King will not kill himself. After the play, the King murders all of the actors in displeasure for the performance. Just before the King stabs himself, too, the mane-less horse named Shirley enters.  It is the production’s last survivor.

The risqué and contemporary humor presented in a Shakespearian style kept the crowd in stitches throughout the performance. Even the actors were unable to stay in character at times, finding their peers’ additions so ridiculous they could not help but laugh. The show received a standing ovation and much cheering, followed by the buzz of audience members sharing their praise for the play.

“It was hilarious,” said first-year student Kayla Doyle. “It needs to happen again,” she said.

“I would definitely come back again and again,” said first-year student Kasi Petersen, in response to Doyle.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company performs at Chicago’s iO Theater and around the country. For more information, visit their website.